Amanda Sams '15

Putting a 'face to her application' helps graphic design major obtain Schweitzer internship

Amanda Sams was a senior at the University of Idaho, majoring in graphic design with minors in marketing and advertising. She graduated December 2015, and was given the opportunity to work as a design intern for Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) in Pullman, Wash. She accomplished this with a little help from Career Services.

The night before Career Services' 2015 Spring Career Fair, Sams found a listing for a SEL web design intern and applied online. She knew SEL would be attending the career fair the next day, so she found the company's booth and introduced herself.

“This put a face to my application, which helped a lot,” she said.

The purpose of Sams’ internship is to help revamp SEL's current website to be more user-friendly.

For the past two years, Career Services has been lucky enough to have Sams as its graphic design and marketing intern. She contributes to and designs of all the marketing materials for every Career Services event. Because of her position, she has always had close access to Career Services and has taken advantage of it. Anytime she was looking for a job or was confused about what to do, she would turn to the Career Services' career advisors for assistance.

“There hasn’t been anything that I have brought to them that they haven’t been able to help me with," she said. "They have been doing this for a while, and they have worked with employers, so they really know what they are talking about.”

Sams has utilized career advisors for interview prep for multiple types of interviews, getting advice on what to do and what not to do, and resume content reviews. She also enjoyed attending the Dine With Style etiquette dinner each year, and learning how to act in front of employers.

Sams' plans for the future include getting married summer 2016 and learning more about web design through her internship with SEL.

“I would strongly recommend for everyone to use the career advisors for anything you need help with, because there is almost nothing that they cannot answer,” she said.